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Mad Men - Season 7, Part 2 - The End of an Era - AMC Sundays

A

Altazor

Member
I find it great to see how much Ted has changed during the show. He was -in a way- presented as Don's sort-of nemesis early on - the "main man" of his own agency, a fierce competitor who managed to snatch Don's protegé away from him and wanted to go to California to save his marriage. Even Don's relationship with Peggy was mirrored with Ted: Don/Peggy has seen its ups and downs, has been both sweet and horribly abusive, but it's a true, deep, lasting connection between them, and it's purely platonic. Ted/Peggy, on the other hand, was a brief affair that held no lasting consequences
except that Ted's marriage was fucked up either way
.

But after all that, Ted's a different man. He no longer has the passion he once had - I can't imagine THIS Ted Chaough trying to woo Peggy out of Don's reach by offering her a higher salary and a more important job. His fire is almost extinguished. He harbors no ill will towards Don anymore. He's pretty much resigned to his fate... and that's why I interpreted that smile the same way T+L did. He's thinking "you maverick bastard, of course you're not going to be a cog in this machine. I can't believe you did it, but it's obvious that you would have".
 
stn

stn

Member
It also felt like a show of respect from Ted, since he pretty much knows he's resigned to a fate of being one of the many cogs in McCann. Either way, didn't see it as anything hostile towards Don.
 
P

phanphare

Banned
BobbyRoberts said:
Maybe they'll get Scorsese to direct the final episode!
Click to expand...

tumblr_inline_mmx92uDBvG1qz4rgp.gif
 
T

tchocky

Member
f0rk said:
Looking forward to that resolution on Henry's storyline that we've all been waiting for
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Maybe he is going to split with Betty and next week she ends up back with Don. Don has been looking wistful for the old days anytime he has visited her this season.
 
M

Mr. Saturn

Member
BoboBrazil said:
Weiner is gonna have Draper be miserable at the end and working in a never ending shithole corporate office isn't he?
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I suppose so, that would certainly be a grim ending and considering how things are going it does seem likely that things will end badly for Don. I guess Weiner could do a face turn but considering how things are going I wonder what would a even a little bit hopeful ending look like at this point, and would it feel earned?

I say a hopeful ending as opposed to a happy ending because at this point I don't think there's any way Don will get some ending where he instantly becomes a happy person, for my money the best ending they could give Don that might feel earned would be for him to move on past his demons so to speak.

It wouldn't mean his life would magically be better, but it would be hopeful in the sense that things might be better in the future for Don. Realistically though I think your idea of the ending is most likely what's going to happen, BoboBrazil.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
tchocky said:
Maybe he is going to split with Betty and next week she ends up back with Don. Don has been looking wistful for the old days anytime he has visited her this season.
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that scene with both of them in the kitchen while Betty was reading was really beautiful. The change in their lives has caused them both to grow and mature when it comes to one another. It was really sweet.

I would like for that to happen but I don't see it. I just want Don to find something that makes him happy or at least somewhat satisfied with his existence. This can't be all there is!
 
S

sammich

Member
Regarding the Miller boardroom meeting and the intro by the research guy.. What he said sounded extremely familiar. I swear Don had said something really really similar before during a pitch. I don't remember the product or what it was concerning but for some reason it seemed that I heard it before.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
sammich said:
Regarding the Miller boardroom meeting and the intro by the research guy.. What he said sounded extremely familiar. I swear Don had said something really really similar before during a pitch. I don't remember the product or what it was concerning but for some reason it seemed that I heard it before.
Click to expand...
I don't think Don said any of it but the point of that scene was that it was a butchering of everything Don stands for both in terms of the way creative should work but also his own pitch style was totally massacred.

I really like avclub's explanation of the scene and why it was so good:

“I’m going to describe a man to you with very specific qualities,” Phillips says, and his next sentence immediately breaks that promise: “He lives in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio.” The imaginary fellow has other nondescript qualities. He works hard, for instance. He has a lawn mower. “He wants a hammock.” The scene cuts to Don’s point of view as he looks at a row of white-sleeved hands grasping pens. None of them write anything because what is there to write? Phillips’ beige sketch of Mr. America leaves no point of purchase for the imagination. It’s Don’s nightmare: A specific man is subsumed by the generic.

The presentation is repulsive to Don on another level. Superficially, Phillips’ technique resembles Don’s own—he loves to tell an evocative story about the customer—yet Phillips strips the approach of any emotional resonance. The concluding point of the Miller presentation is that the customer in question likes a particular brand of beer, and Miller must convince him to try their brand. All this nonsense about a “very specific” man is an empty rhetorical trick to restate an obvious business question.

This is Don’s method reduced to its most functional and heartless. This is “advertising,” and Don had always aspired to more than that. The end of that fantasy, for Don and his colleagues, is the “Lost Horizon” of the episode’s title. Where is the horizon for the great minds of Sterling Cooper now? What do they look forward to?
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D

Dany

Banned
sammich said:
Regarding the Miller boardroom meeting and the intro by the research guy.. What he said sounded extremely familiar. I swear Don had said something really really similar before during a pitch. I don't remember the product or what it was concerning but for some reason it seemed that I heard it before.
Click to expand...

tumblr_nnua4yY0n41qdbluio2_500.jpg
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
-Pyromaniac- said:
I don't think Don said any of it but the point of that scene was that it was a butchering of everything Don stands for both in terms of the way creative should work but also his own pitch style was totally massacred.

I really like avclub's explanation of the scene and why it was so good:
Click to expand...

I think they've been having some really good analysis and reviews for these last episodes.
 
J

JTripper

Member
Not ready to accept the fact that we're about to watch the penultimate episode of this show.

We have less than 2 original hours of this show left forever and ever.
 
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